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PROGRAMMING

  

CMENAS supports a wide variety of academic programming for non-specialists, designed to foster an informed understanding of the Middle East and North Africa among students at the University of Michigan and the broader public. CMENAS draws upon the considerable Middle Eastern expertise of more than fifty faculty members from multiple disciplines, departments, and professional schools at the University of Michigan.

CMENAS is able to offer numerous lectures, symposia, colloquia, and conferences featuring U-M faculty and other internationally renowned experts on the region. A selection of recent activities and programs illustrates this diversity:

  • lectures on the political and cultural ramifications of the war in Iraq, as well as the prospects for democratization in the region
  • a panel discussion on the possibilities for peace between Israel and Palestine, featuring both Israeli and Palestinian faculty members
  • international conferences on contemporary politics and society in Algeria and Armenia, as well as reproductive politics in the Muslim Middle East
  • a public symposium on relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States in the context of the “war on terror,” cosponsored by King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • a year-long lecture series devoted to the changing face of Israeli society, organized in collaboration with U-M's Frankel Center for Judaic Studies
  • a Middle Eastern film series with offerings from Iran, Israel, Turkey, and the Arab World
    performances and exhibits by renowned artists from Iran, Palestine, Syria, Israel, and Lebanon
  • a Winter 2005 Theme Semester offered through U-M's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts on “Cultural Treasures of the Middle East,” featuring a variety of educational programming on the arts, literature, music, cinema, and architecture of the region.

These examples represent only a portion of CMENAS's academic programming. Among our regular offerings are a monthly Turkish Studies colloquium and a weekly colloquium series, offered in conjunction with the Department of Near Eastern Studies, on a variety of Middle Eastern regional themes, including women’s everyday lives, representations of the human image in Middle Eastern arts and media, and science, technology, and medicine in the Islamic world.